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Crossover Office 2.0 Released
freakyfreak2 writes "Crossover Office 2.0.0 was just released. Finally can get Office XP apps to run. Here's from the announcement. "The changes in this release are as follows:
Support was added for Photoshop 7, Access 2000, Word XP, Excel XP, and
Powerpoint XP. glibc 2.3 issues were fixed. The setup GUI was
dramatically improved. Tablet support for Photoshop was added. File
locking and file change notification support were added. Scripts were
added so that the technically inclined can have Windows applications
open specific file types using Unix applications, for instance,
opening PDF fies with the Unix Acrobat Reader. Many other cleanups
and bug fixes were made. "
Here's the homepage and here's the change log. I'm still waiting on getting Dreamweaver MX to run."
Do they have to add support for every single application which should be able to run with Crossover or does it simply mean it's guaranteed these applications will run with crossover?
They are freskmeat.net links but they just redirect to codeweavers actual site.
<conspiracy>
OSDN is keeping track of our clicking habits
</conspiracy>
my other penis is a vagina
Only vaguely, in as much as it's WINE related. Crossover produce a very good product though, and I'd love to see them succeed. Also, unlike TransGaming, they contribute all their changes back into the main WINE tree, thus earning them huge kudos as good citizens of the open source community.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Hmm. I've long said I can never use linux on my desk at home until I can run Photoshop (and run it well). I'll be interested to see how well this works. Anyone tried yet?
(and yes, I know about gimp, and yes, I know about OSX and photoshop)
I'm not very sure it's a good thing that Microsoft's applications run under a Linux operating system. This might increase the use of MS's closed document formats (doc, xls,...) by Linux users.
I think that alternative office environments, like OpenOffice.org, are far more important. These apps import MS documents without a lot of trouble, and save the documents by default in a documented file format.
If only more people knew about (and trusted) the cheap alternatives for MS Office, then the number of closed document formats in digital communcation might reduce at last.
Many of the productivity apps supported are the only reasons many need a Windows installation. I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft try and buy them?
Now all we need is a good WINE fork specialising in MIDI and audio work.
I already have a copy of Office XP... the presentation app in Open Office sucks IMHO... usability is terrible with it and I need compatability with MS Office anyways. So Crossover Office plus Office XP is a good deal for me. I hate the proprietary MS crap as much as the next guy, but when it comes to office... they've done a pretty good job with makeing it all work nicely. Now if OO.o had a better interface and there was a good open standard for Presentations that both Open Office and MS Office could use then I would be using open office.
So in a way my problem is both caused by and solved by Microsoft.... now that should be the definition of a monopoly!! In the words of Homer "Beer... the cause of and solution to all of lifes problems"
... removed all incentive for developers to create OS/2 native applications.
Actually, this shows how clueless the open source community really is when it comes to business. This is a product that lets you do the same things you are already doing, so what is the incentive to change? It is most certainly not going to work exactly like it does in Windows, and that is a pretty big risk when making a major decision. I can only imagine that this was made to "save money" for people adopting Linux. Truth is, this only saves the cheapest part of the whole software suite - the OS. As far as a tool for transition - maybe, but the maintenance of the OS requires people with different skill sets that are not found in the skill pool that they found their last IT guy from. As an engineer, I can see some long term benefits from this with low risk in the near term. The low risk is from knowledge that if no one competent can be found to make the stuff work, I know I can make it work. From a business person standpoint, the risk is too great, the up-front cost is too great, etc.
One really cool use would be a web-server based file translator from Microsoft Word format to other formats (say, .rtf) using Microsoft Word as the engine to do the translation. It could filter your email, and automatically translate those Microsoft Office documents into something readable. Perhaps it could even brute force some files (power point, for example) into screen captured graphics files.
But using the actual Microsoft software to do the translation would ensure that at least the file was read in correctly.
That way you'd only need one copy of office for an entire office.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
I saw a project once (can't find it now or remember the name of it) which was a script that goes on a Windows server.. you email it a doc file and it automatically converts it to some other format using MS Word and sends it back to you. Since that would obviously handle any .doc, it would sure be nice if someone would set up a publically accessible server that does that.
Don't drop the soap, Tommy!
Three reasons I disagree with thsi:
1. Less security issues. Provided I set up cxoffice/Wine correctly, any "damage" a rogue Windows app might do can be contained very easily. At worst, it will affect the "Windows" stuff, but it won't affect the Linux data. While I occasionally need Outlook to perform some tasks, I usually use native mail readers, so the risk of "some virus" or "some rogue piece of code" coming in is very minimal.
2. Apps that will never have a Linux equivelant. One application I currently rely on for work has effectively been discontinued as a result of M&As, so the chance of seeing a Linux equivelant is zero squared. However, with a little coaxing, it runs just beautifully under cxoffice.
3. Choice. Because I can run my critical business apps under an alternate OS, I am now no longer "locked" into a particular OS choice. I frequently switch between my Linux box and my Win2k box and I can do most of my basic work tasks in either platform.
-- PhoneBoy
The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone, including the poster.
no kidding. Wine sounds like a neat hack but doesn't accomplish MY goals in moving away from Windows. Besides, how long until MS pulls a Foxpro on the rest of its software offerings and running its products on non-specified OSes becomes a violation of the EULA? "That's tying!" Yep. I don't have the pockets to fight it, though. OpenOffice.org is truly useful. I use it on my Windows machines instead of MS Office (even though I have Office Pro). I even have Adobe's PDF creation software (legally) but prefer using OOoB1's export to PDF tools (security, what security?). CrossOver is uninteresting to me, sorry.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello